A recent article in Haaretz, with the somewhat misleading title of “DNA links prove Jews are a ‘race,’ says genetics expert,” unveils a line of inquiry that grapples honestly with the matter of genetics and Jews. I’ve written a number of times on the controversial work of Shlomo Sand, an Israeli historian who disputes Jewish peoplehood with a highly selective review of evidence and a pronounced anti-Zionist agenda. This article provides a rational and measured counterpoint to Sand’s ideological screed.

As the article acknowledges, this subject is a political bombshell, but it also proves that it can be addressed reasonably. One should not be thrown off by “race” being in the title; the article is in no way “racist” in its analysis. It accepts that genetic differences among populations (historically separated by geography and/or cultural or political factors) are relatively minuscule, but still have a significance in terms of dispositions toward certain diseases, physical appearance and possibly other traits.

Modern racism was based on a faux-scientific mindset in the 19th century which identified nations and ethnic groups as genetically-defined races. This is what shaped Nazi race theory on Jews and other peoples whom they identified as inferior or (in the case of Jews) pernicious and deserving of extermination. It also fueled European colonial expansion and exploitation in the Americas, Africa, Asia and the Pacific.

Until very recent years, the overwhelming majority of Jews only married other Jews. This didn’t make Jews a “race,” but it did make them somewhat genetically distinct from other population groups.

Many (perhaps most) Jews have a sense of themselves as a people who are intellectually superior. There is some statistical (and now genetic) evidence for arguing this point, but the factual basis for such a contention is probably more a function of culture plus the social legacy of Jews being a minority group that has had to scramble to make a living because they were denied access to land. There’s the Jewish tradition of Talmudic scholarship and the elevation of learning as a cultural value, and the historical need for Jews to be innovative as businessmen in order to survive.

The tradition of Talmudic scholarship has been secularized into an embrace of academic study for professional degrees and achievement. Hence the disproportionate number of Jewish winners of the Nobel Prize in science and other disciplines. One wonders if these numbers will trend down as American Jews become increasingly assimilated (although this would not happen under anything like laboratory experimental conditions, because cultural assimilation goes hand in hand with intermarriage).

The economic and professional achievements of overseas East Indians, Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, et al., must also be driven by their experience as minorities who needed to scramble for a living in business, but they don’t have quite the same cultural affinity for learning as suggested by the Jewish tradition of Talmudic scholarship. In the case of East Asians, this may be compensated by intense family pressures to succeed, even more intense than is true traditionally in Jewish families.

As an amusing footnote on all this, I’ve just been informed of an article in YNet (the English-language website associated with the Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahranot) that reports that most families in South Korea actually study the Talmud in Korean, on the theory that Talmud study is the secret to Jewish academic achievement and economic success. This is an overly literal application of the point I’ve just made, that the tradition of Talmud study has promoted a secularized reverence for learning and intellectual rigor that has stood Jews in good stead.

However, considering the ways in which the Jewish state has fallen repeatedly into a pattern of violence and counter-violence in its conflicts with the Palestinians and Hezbollah, I would say that the notion of an inherently superior Jewish intelligence is either wrong or grossly overrated.

13 Responses to “Are Jews the Smartest ‘Race’?”

When you say, “The economic and professional achievements of overseas East Indians, Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, et al., must also be driven by their experience as minorities who needed to scramble for a living in business, but they don’t have quite the same cultural affinity for learning as suggested by the Jewish tradition of Talmudic scholarship.” — I wonder what evidence you have to make such a broad assertion? Certainly there is a tradition among Judaism for studying Torah, Talmud. the commentaries, etc., but saying that other cultures don’t share the same “affinity for learning” smacks of cultural superiority to my ears.

I was pointing out a cultural difference, but not as an indicator of superiority. My evidence is that literacy among Jews, at least among Jewish males in Biblical Hebrew, was nearly universal when literacy was not generally the norm outside of elites in most other cultures.

Please note that I’ve just added a reference to an article reporting that most South Korean families own a Korean-language copy of the Talmud on the theory that its study is the secret to Jewish academic achievement and economic success. South Koreans obviously see Talmud study as an advantage.

All my Jewish friends always seemed interested in the pursuit of knowledge and higher learning; I believe success breeds success, and the librarian’s favorite cliche about knowledge being power might just be true after all :)

I have thought about this – no data, just experience. I think having been readers, having had a written language for so long is also a factor. Jewish people particularly in the USA have been and are leaders in social justice causes. But like the Irish, when they become more wealthy they are less progressive in social justice causes.
Arabs too particularly in Spain in the Middle Ages excelled – again having reading and a written language was important. And in Palestine today, the children there score higher in national [standardized] tests than do Israeli children – on the average. Again the history of “the book” and reading with both cultures.
There is a self-confidence among Jews in some thinking that Jewish are the “chosen people,” that more people need to have. With Buddhism – influencing Asians, there is also the attitude of being born as a good caring person that has good consequences. This positive attitude affects learning.

i find the topic somewhat disturbing……..since all humans, without exception, seem to fall prey to ego problems when judgmental thinking comes into play.

when any person becomes expert at something and experiences success, after a while of that we start building and depending more on the reputation our expertise made, and less on the subject itself. we too often compare and compete with those around us, using our earned reputation to justify more and more self aggrandizement, while starting to neglect the very focus that brought us success.

we all have that ego weakness……..and that truly negates most of the true benefits of our original efforts and characteristics.

any ‘comparing of races’ this way –(who is smarter, etc……) smacks of racist feelings and thoughts.
why even go there? haven’t we all suffered enough from the useless comparisons of one ‘race’ with another??!!

i think we too often forget that we are ALL…….every one of us, members of the one human race, and we’d do better to focus on learning to better get along and respect one another without judgments or comparisons.

To be a Jew, is certainly based on “race”. According to Jewish and Israeli laws – a person is only Jewish if his/her mother is Jewish – and father’s religion doesn’t count.

As for Jewish or Israeli achievements are concerned – it’s a matter of personal opinion. David Brooks in his January 12 Op-Ed column “The Tel Aviv Cluster’ in the New York Times boasted many Jewish achievements considering they make-up only 0.2% of world’s population. He claimed that 54% of world chess champions, 27% of the Nobel physics laureates and 31% of the medicine laureates are Jewish. David Brooks also adds that though Jews make only 2% of United States population – 21% of Ivy League student bodies, 26% of the Kennedy Center honorees, 37% of Academy Award winning directors, 38% of those on a recent Business Week list of leading philanthropists and 51% of Pulitzer Prize winners for non-fiction are Jewish. I, too, find them very laudable. But then David Brooks come out of his Hasbara (propaganda) liter-box by equating these Jewish achiement with Israeli achievements – as if the great majority of 12.7 million world Jewish population lives inside Jewish occupied Palestine. In fact there are more Jews in the US than in Israel and its extended Jewish settlements on the remaining 22% Palestinian land.

Rahmat, you and your website are a trash talking bunch of. Islamofacsists. Just so I am not labeled bigot, there is a quiet a a distinction between main stream Muslims and Islamofacists.

And BTW, Israel is an important advanced center for computer software and hardware technology, biotech and agriculture. You see, without oil, Israel had to figure out how to build their economy based on knowledge.

The Talmud is Judaism’s holiest book (actually a collection of books). Its authority takes precedence over the Old Testament in Judaism. Evidence of this may be found in the Talmud itself, Erubin 21b (Soncino edition):

“My son, be more careful in the observance of the words of the Scribes than in the words of the Torah (Old Testament).”

“Further, without the Talmud, we would not be able to understand passages in the Bible … God has handed this authority to the sages and tradition is a necessity as well as scripture. The Sages also made enactments of their own … anyone who does not study the Talmud cannot understand Scripture.”

THE PEDOPHILE MESSIAH

Second century Rabbi Simeon ben Yohai, one of Judaism’s very greatest rabbis and a creator of Kabbalah, sanctioned pedophilia – permitting molestation of baby girls even younger than three! He proclaimed,

“A proselyte who is under the age of three years and a day is permitted to marry a priest.” 1
Yebamoth 60b,
Subsequent rabbis refer to ben Yohai’s endorsement of pedophilia as “halakah,” or binding Jewish law. 2 Yebamoth 60b

Has Rabbi ben Yohai, child rape advocate, been disowned by modern Jews? Hardly. Today, in ben Yohai’s hometown of Meron, Israel, tens of thousands of orthodox and ultra-orthodox Jews gather annually for days and nights of singing and dancing in his memory.
References to pedophilia abound in the Talmud. They occupy considerable sections of Treatises Kethuboth and Yebamoth and are enthusiastically endorsed by the Talmud’s definitive legal work, Treatise Sanhedrin.

The Pharisees Endorsed Child Sex

The rabbis of the Talmud are notorious for their legal hairsplitting, and quibbling debates. But they share rare agreement about their right to molest three year old girls. In contrast to many hotly debated issues, hardly a hint of dissent rises against the prevailing opinion (expressed in many clear passages) that pedophilia is not only normal but scriptural as well! It’s as if the rabbis have found an exalted truth whose majesty silences debate.
Because the Talmudic authorities who sanction pedophilia are so renowned, and because pedophilia as “halakah” is so explicitly emphasized, not even the translators of the Soncino edition of the Talmud (1936) dared insert a footnote suggesting the slightest criticism. They only comment: “Marriage, of course, was then at a far earlier age than now.” 3

In fact, footnote 5 to Sanhedrin 60b rejects the right of a Talmudic rabbi to disagree with ben Yohai’s endorsement of pedophilia:
“How could they [the rabbis], contrary to the opinion of R. Simeon ben Yohai, which has scriptural support, forbid the marriage of the young proselyte?” 4
1 Yebamoth 60b, p. 402.
2 Yebamoth 60b, p. 403.
3 Sanhedrin 76a.
4 In Yebamoth 60b, p. 404, Rabbi Zera disagrees that sex with girls under three years and one day should be endorsed as halakah.

Out of Babylon
It was in Babylon after the exile under Nebuchadnezzar in 597 BC that Judaism’s leading sages probably began to indulge in pedophilia. Babylon was the staggeringly immoral capitol of the ancient world. For 1600 years, the world’s largest population of Jews flourished within it.
As an example of their evil, Babylonian priests said a man’s religious duty included regular sex with temple prostitutes. Bestiality was widely tolerated. So Babylonians hardly cared whether a rabbi married a three year old girl.
But with expulsion of the Jews in the 11th century AD, mostly to western Christian lands, Gentile tolerance of Jewish pedophilia abruptly ended.
Still, a shocking contradiction lingers: If Jews want to revere the transcendent wisdom and moral guidance of the Pharisees and their Talmud, they must accept the right of their greatest ancient sages to violate children. To this hour, no synod of Judaism has repudiated their vile practice.
Sex with a “Minor” Permitted
What exactly did these sages say?
The Pharisees justified child rape by explaining that a boy of nine years was not a “man” Thus they exempted him from God’s Mosaic Law:
“You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination” (Leviticus. 18:22)
One passage in the Talmud gives permission for a woman who molested her young son to marry a high priest. It concludes,

“All agree that the (sexual) connection of a boy aged nine years and a day is a real connection; whilst that of one less than eight years is not.” Sanhedrin 69b 5

Because a boy under 9 is sexually immature, he can’t “throw guilt” on the active offender, morally or legally. 6

“…the intercourse of a small boy is not regarded as a sexual act.” 7
The Talmud also says,

“A male aged nine years and a day who cohabits with his deceased brother’s wife acquires her (as wife).”8
Clearly, the Talmud teaches that a woman is permitted to marry and have sex with a nine year old boy.
5 Sanhedrin 69b.
6 Sanhedrin 55a.
7 Footnote 1 to Kethuboth 11b.
8 Sanhedrin 55b.

Sex at Three Years and One Day
In contrast to Simeon ben Yohai’s dictum that sex with a little girl is permitted under the age of three years, the general teaching of the Talmud is that the rabbi must wait until a day after her third birthday. She could be taken in marriage simply by the act of rape.
R. Joseph said: Come and hear! A maiden aged three years and a day may be acquired in marriage by coition and if her deceased husband’s brother cohabits with her, she becomes his. (Sanhedrin 55b)

A girl who is three years of age and one day may be betrothed by cohabitation. . . .(. Yebamoth 57b)

A maiden aged three years and a day may be acquired in marriage by coition, and if her deceased husband’s brother cohabited with her she becomes his. (Sanhedrin. 69a, 69b, also discussed in Yebamoth. 60b)
It was taught: R. Simeon b. Yohai stated: A proselyte who is under the age of three years and one day is permitted to marry a priest, for it is said, But all the women children that have not known man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves, and Phineas (who was priest, the footnote says) surely was with them. (Yebamoth. 60b)

[The Talmud says such three year and a day old girls are] . . . fit for cohabitation. . . But all women children, that have not known man by lying with him, it must be concluded that Scripture speaks of one who is fit for cohabitation. (Footnote to Yebamoth. 60b)
The example of Phineas, a priest, himself marrying an underage virgin of three years is considered by the Talmud as proof that such infants are “fit for cohabitation.”

The Talmud teaches that an adult woman’s molestation of a nine year old boy is “not a sexual act” and cannot “throw guilt” upon her because the little boy is not truly a “man.” 9 But they use opposite logic to sanction rape of little girls aged three years and one day: Such infants they count as “women,” sexually mature and fully responsible to comply with the requirements of marriage.
The Talmud footnotes 3 and 4 to Sanhedrin 55a clearly tell us when the rabbis considered a boy and girl sexually mature and thus ready for marriage. “At nine years a male attains sexual matureness… The sexual matureness of woman is reached at the age of three.”
9 Sanhedrin 55a.

No Rights for Child Victims
The Pharisees were hardly ignorant of the trauma felt by molested children. To complicate redress, the Talmud says a rape victim must wait until she was of age before there would be any possibility of restitution. She must prove that she lived and would live as a devoted Jewess, and she must protest the loss of her virginity on the very hour she comes of age. “As soon as she was of age one hour and did not protest she cannot protest any more.” 10
The Talmud defends these strict measures as necessary to forestall the possibility of a Gentile child bride rebelling against Judaism and spending the damages awarded to her as a heathen – an unthinkable blasphemy! But the rights of the little girl were really of no great consequence, for,
“When a grown-up man has intercourse with a little girl it is nothing, for when the girl is less than this (three years and a day) it is as if one put the finger into the eye.” The footnote says that as “tears come to the eye again and again, so does virginity come back to the little girl under three years.” Kethuboth 11b.

In most cases, the Talmud affirms the innocence of male and female victims of pedophilia. Defenders of the Talmud claim this proves the Talmud’s amazing moral advancement and benevolence toward children; they say it contrasts favorably with “primitive” societies where the child would have been stoned along with the adult perpetrator.

Actually, the rabbis, from self-protection, were intent on proving the innocence of both parties involved in pedophilia: the child, but more importantly, the pedophile. They stripped a little boy of his right to “throw guilt” on his assailant and demanded complicity in sex from a little girl. By thus providing no significant moral or legal recourse for the child, the Talmud clearly reveals whose side it is on: the raping rabbi.
Pedophilia Widespread
Child rape was practiced in the highest circles of Judaism. This is illustrated from Yebamoth. 60b:
There was a certain town in the land of Israel the legitimacy of whose inhabitants was disputed, and Rabbi sent R. Romanos who conducted an inquiry and found in it the daughter of a proselyte who was under the age of three years and one day, and Rabbi declared her eligible to live with a priest.
The footnote says that she was “married to a priest” and the rabbi simply permitted her to live with her husband, thus upholding “halakah” as well as the dictum of Simeon ben Yohai,

“A proselyte who is under the age of three years and one day is permitted to marry a priest.” 12
These child brides were expected to submit willingly to sex. Yebamoth. 12b confirms that under eleven years and one day a little girl is not permitted to use a contraceptive but “must carry on her marital intercourse in the usual manner.”
In Sanhedrin 76b a blessing is given to the man who marries off his children before they reach the age of puberty, with a contrasting curse on anyone who waits longer. In fact, failure to have married off one’s daughter by the time she is 12-1/2, the Talmud says, is as bad as one who “returns a lost article to a Cuthean” (Gentile) – a deed for which “the Lord will not spare him.” 13 This passage says:
“… it is meritorious to marry off one’s children whilst minors.”
The mind reels at the damage to the untold numbers of girls who were sexually abused within Judaism during the heyday of pedophilia. Such child abuse, definitely practiced in the second century, continued, at least in Babylon, for another 900 years.
10 Kethuboth 11a.
11 Kethuboth 11b.
12 Yebamoth 60b.
13 Sanhedrin 76b.

A Fascination with Sex
Perusing the Talmud, one is overwhelmed with the recurrent preoccupation with sex, especially by the most eminent rabbis. Dozens of illustrations could be presented to illustrate the delight of the Pharisees to discuss sex and quibble over its minutest details.
The rabbis endorsing child sex undoubtedly practiced what they preached. Yet to this hour, their words are revered. Simeon ben Yohai is honored by Orthodox Jews as one of the very greatest sages and spiritual lights the world has ever known. A member of the earliest “Tannaim,” rabbis most influential in creating the Talmud, he carries more authority to observant Jews than Moses.
Today, the Talmud’s outspoken pedophiles and child-rape advocates would doubtlessly spend hard time in prison for child molestation.
The Oedipus complex was the invention of Sigmund Freud! Freud originally discovered, in the treatments partially conducted under hypnosis, that all his patients, both male and female, had been abused children and recounted their histories in the language of symptoms. After reporting his discovery in psychiatric circles, he found himself completely shunned because none of his fellow psychiatrists was prepared to share the findings with him. Freud could not bear the isolation for long. A few months later, in 1897, he described his patients’ reports on sexual abuse as sheer fantasies attributable to their instinctual wishes.

Freud’s father was a paedophile! In a letter to his friend Wilhelm Fliess, he wrote:
“Unfortunately, my own father was one of these perverts and is responsible for the hysteria of my brother (all of whose symptoms are identifications) and those of several younger sisters. The frequency of this circumstance often makes me wonder.”
Fliess’s son, Robert Fliess exposed his own father as being another paedophile, who had sexually abused him when he was a child.

Statement on Sexual Abuse of Children
By Rabbi Zev. M. Shandalov
May 22, 2006
Over the past few days, there have been a number of items that have been printed in the mainstream press and in the “Jewish” press regarding stories of sexual abuse of children and alleged cover-up of said abuse and the perpetrators. The purpose of this email is to address this situation.
Abuse: I am not going to discuss any of the allegations in the articles or those that are floating around on the Internet. I do wish though to comment in general terms.
ANY abuse perpetrated against a child no matter how “minor” or seemingly “insignificant” can be damaging for life for the child; is illegal; is assur (prohibited by Torah law) and can potentially be actionable in a court of law. In addition, anyone seeking to protect the abuser, including but not limited to rabbis, professionals, community leaders, institutions, etc. are themselves culpable in the crimes that the alleged perpetrator commits after discovering the crimes and seeking to cover them up. The covering up of such offenses not only is in itself a Chillul Hashem (a profanation of the name of Hashem) but also adds to the abuse of the victims after the fact. Delivering information to the police in order to remove the offender from the streets and to protect further abuse is a Mitzva incumbent upon all who have knowledge of abuse. Additionally, the Mitzvah of “Al ta’amod al dam re’acha” (One may not stand idly by while another is being injured) is found in the Torah to make it everyone’s responsibility to help another in jeopardy.
I hope that this has helped to clarify a very disturbing issue. WE MAY NOT REMAIN SILENT WHEN ANYONE IS BEING ABUSED AND CERTAINLY NOT WHEN THE PERSON BEING ABUSED IS A CHILD!
Rabbi Zev M. Shandalov
Congregation Kehilath Jacob Beth Samuel (KJBS)
Chicago, IL
Cases of Clergy Abuse and Other Trusted Officials
1. Case of Rabbi Yoram Aberjil (Netivot, Israel) (Accused of cult like practices and sexual harassment of young women and treatening the lives of the survivors and those who support them.)
2. Case of Rabbi Shlomo Aviner (Beit El, Israel) (Two women accused the rabbi of creating emotionally intimate relationships with them. These relationships included his expressions of his love for them during regular late-night phone conversations, extracting details from them of their sexuality and promoting an unhealthy emotional dependence on him).
3. Case of Rabbi Aryeh Blaut (AKA: Louis Blaut, Louis Steven Blaut, Louis A. Blaut, Louis S. Blaut) (Seattle, WA) (Convicted sex offender on federal charges of possession of child pornography. According to the United States Department of Probation, Louis Blaut is not allowed contact with anyone under the age of eighteen on the internet or in person).
4. Case of Rabbi Jerry Brauner (Boro Park, Brooklyn, NY) (Convicted on the charges of Sexual Abuse-1st Degree and Sexual Abuse-3rd:Subject Another Person to Sex Contact Without Consent. He was sentenced to 11 years probation, with the condition he must participate in a sex offender treatment program. Brauner has been on probation since 2002 for the sexual abuse of a 15-year-old boy. On December 27, 2006, Jerry Brauner was arrested on charges of stealing a half-million-dollar home from a cancer-stricken woman, using a forged power of attorney to sell it and pocket the profits. Brauner is being held in lieu of $85,000 bail for lying about prior sex-abuse convictions when he applied for his notary’s license.)
5. Case of Rabbi Lewis Brenner (AKA: Lippa Brenner) (Brooklyn, NY) (Convicted of child molestation. The original charges included 14 counts of sodomy, sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child. He agreed to plead guilty to one count of sodomy in the third degree, a Class E felony, in exchange for a sentence of five years’ probation.)
6. Case of Rabbi Yaakov Yitzhak Brizel (Jerusalem, Israel) (Accused of child molestation)
7. Case of Rabbi Ephraim Bryks (Winnipeg, Canada, New York, NY) (There is a Call for Action on this case. Accusations about sexual inappropriate behavior with children started surfacing in the 1980′s. Rabbi Bryks is currently a member of the Vaad Harabonim of Queens. The Vaad is a Rabbinical committee that makes important decisions within an orthodox community.)
8. Case of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach (There is a Call for Action on this case. Accused of several cases of child molestation, and sexual assault of young adult women)
9. Case Rabbi Perry Ian Cohen – Montreal and Toronto Canada (Accused of sexual abuse of a seventeen year old. Fired for sexual impropriety with congregants)
10. Case of Rabbi Yitzchak Cohen (Israel) (Accused of sexually harassing students at Bar-Ilan University)
11. Case of Rabbi Asher Dahan, Be’er Sheva, Israel (Arrested after being accused of raping and sexually abusing two 17-year-old girls after he offered “to redeem them of sin and evil inclinations.”)
12. Case of Rabbi Anthony Dee (Blackpool England; Portsmouth, England) (Former synagogue minister Reverend Anthony Dee found guilty of sexually abusing two boys and a girl in Blackpool and Portsmouth, England. This is the first set of convictions, there was a second set of convictions in 1997.)
13. Case of Rabbi Moshe Eisemann (AKA: Moshe Eiseman) – Mashgiach Ruchni Ner Israel Rabbinical College (Baltimore, MD) (There is a Call for Action on this case – Accused of child sexual abuse)
14. Case of Rabbi Elior Chen (Jerusalem, Israel) (Accused of cultic type practices)
15. Case of Rabbi Arnold Fink – Beth El Hebrew Congregation – Alexandria, VA (Accused of Professional Rabbinic Sexual Misconduct)
16. Case of Rabbi Benyamin Yaakov Fleischman (AKA Benyamin Fleischman, Ben Fleischman)- Photographer (Baltimore, MD) (Convicted of sexually assaulting a minor.)
17. Case of Rabbi Gershon Freidlin (Colonia, NJ; Pittsburgh, PA; Washington, PA) (Rabbi Gershon Freidlin pleaded guilty to one count of child endangerment , saying he had touched the youth’s penis and buttocks while applying tanning lotion on the boy on July 10, 1995 Under the terms of a plea agreement, the rabbi will not be jailed for the crime, but faces up to five years probation.)
18. Case of Yehudah Friedlander – Rabbi ‘s Assistant (Brooklyn, NY) (Accused of molesting a 15 year old on a 1995 plane flight from Australia to LA. Friedlander was the assistant to the chief rabbi of an Hungarian Hasidic congregation in Brooklyn, known as the Pupas)
19. Case of Cantor Stuart Friedman (Halifax,Canada-Philadelphia, Detroit, Boston, Los Angeles, Baltimore) (Convicted and sentanced to 15 months in federal prison on one count of distributing child pornography).
20. Case of Cantor Philip Friedman (Albany, NY, Queens, NY, Long Island, NY) (Temple Israel fired its longtime cantor for “inappropriate behavior” toward a member of the congregation, and the Albany County district attorney’s office confirmed Tuesday that it is investigating the matter.)
21. Case of Rabbi Jacob Frank (AKA: Yaakov Frank) and the Frankist Movement (Convicted of cultic type practices and sexual offenses.)
22. Case of Rabbi Lewis Furman of Ohr Somayach, Johannesburg, South Africa (Prominent South African rabbi who was allegedly caught having an affair with a married woman. He is also accused of being “serial philanderer” – was forced to resign his position in South Africa and will not practise as a rabbi in this country again.)
23. Rabbi Tobias Gabriel (Toronto, Canada) (There is a Call for Action on this case. Accused by more then one woman of clergy sexual abuse / professional sexual misconduct).
24. Case of Rabbi Mordechai Gafni (aka: Marc Gafni, Mordechai Winiarz, Marc Winiarz) (There is a Call for Action on this case. Accused sexually abusing teenage girls, attempted sexual assault of a young adult, and also accused of cult like practices).
25. Case of Rabbi Shimon Gerlick (Nahariya, Israel) (Arrest for allegedly committing indecent sexual acts with a two minors and and adult woman)
26. Case of Rabbi Jonathan Ginsburg (St. Paul, MN) (There is a Call for Action on this case. Resigned as senior rabbi at Temple of Aaron, shortly after reaching an out-of-court settlement with a former congregation member who accused him of sexual misconduct. A criminal investigation into the case also is being closed, with no charges forthcoming).
27. Case of Rabbi Ephraim Goldberg (Boca Raton, FL) (Pled guilty to one misdemeanor count of exposure of sexual organs in a washroom at a Palm Beach Mall.)
28. Case of Rabbi/Cantor Sidney Goldenberg (Levittown,NY; Seaford, NY; Bayshore, NY; Petaluma, CA; Coney Island, NY) (Convicted of molesting children. The first complaints came in 1971. He was finally convicted in 1997.)
29. Case of Cantor Joel Gordon (Buffalo Grove, IL) (Convicted of having keeping a house of prostitution and involvement in a prostitution ring.)
30. Case of Rabbi Mark A. Golub – Mental Health Counselor (Newport, Virginia) (Had professional counseling license revolked for having sex with a female client, according to a state disciplinary order).
31. Case of Rabbi Sidney Greenbaum (AKA: Rabbi Zalman Greenbaum, Professor Zalman Greenbaum) (Pleaded guilty at Hendon magistrates’ court to three charges of indecent assault on young boys)
32. Case of Rabbi Yisrael Menachem Grunwald (AKA: Israel Grunwald) (Borough Park/Brooklyn NY) (In a plea bargin agreement Rabbi Israel Grunwald agreed to 500 hours of community service and counseling after being accused of fondling a 15-year-old on a 1995 plane flight from Australia. The charges against him were then dropped.)
33. Case of Rabbi Solomon Hafner (Borough Park/Brooklyn, NY) (Accused of sexually abusing a developmentally disabled boy)
34. Case of Cantor Mark Horowitz, Temple Beth Am in Amherst (Getzville, NY) (Charged with committing lewd acts on an undercover police officer.)
35. Case of Rabbi (Alan J.) Shneur Horowitz (Hagerstown, MD; Israel; Schenectady, NY; California; Iowa) (Convicted and sentenced to 10 – 20 years in prison for sodomizing a nine-year-old psychiatric patient. Allegedly, he has assaulted a string of children from California to Israel to New York in the past twenty years. Alan J. Horowitz is an Orthodox rabbi, magna cum laude, M.D., Ph.D. A graduate of Duke University, and was a writer for NAMBLA (North American Man/Boy Love Association).
36. Case of Rabbi Steven J. Kaplan (Saskatoon, Canada) (Allegations, detailed in court documents, that he lacked proper ordination, sexually harassed female congregants and committed adultery with one of them).
37. Case of Rabbi David Kaye (Potomac, MD; Rockville, MD; San Antonio, TX) (There is a Call for Action on this case. Featured on “Dateline NBC” for seeking a sexual encounter with an underage boy in a chat room. NBC News conducted a sting in August, (2005) working with a group called “Perverted Justice.” Members of the group, posing as underage boys and girls, entered Internet chat rooms and waited for adults to engage them in conversations)
38. Case of Rabbi David Kedmi – Certified Mohel (New Hempstead, NY; Spring Valley, NY) (Accused of Battery and Breach of Contract.)
39. Case of Case of Rabbanit Bruria Keren (AKA: Burka Wearing Mother) (Beit Shemish, Israel) (Arrested on charges of child sexual abuse and physical abuse of her twelve children. She has also been accused of cult like practices)
40. Case of Rabbi Israel Kestenbaum (New York, NY) (Convicted of child pornography on the internet)
41. Case of Rabbi Robert Kirschner (San Francisco, CA) (Confessed to sexually exploited or harassing three congregants and a synagogue employee)
42. Case of Rabbi Yisucher Kohn (AKA: Barry Kohn) (New Square, NY) (Convicted of Sexual Abuse 1st: Sexual Contact With Individual Less Than 11Years Old.)
43. Case of Rabbi Yehuda Kolko (AKA: Joel Kolko, Yudi Kolko) – Yeshiva Torah Temimah (New York, NY) (Arrested in New York City on December 7, 2006 following a long-term police investigation. He was charged with four counts of sexual abuse, including two felony counts, and endangering the welfare of a child. The most recent sexual abuse was allegedly against an 8-year-old boy, who says he was abused while he was in the first grade during the 2002-03 school year.Rabbi Yudi Kolko and Yeshiva Torah Temimah were hit with a $20 million civil lawsuit on May 5, 2006, accusing him of molesting two students more than 25 years ago. One of the alleged victims said Rabbi Yehuda Kolko, 60, sexually assaulted him when he was a seventh-grade student).
44. Case of Rabbi Ze’ev Kopolevitch (Jerusalem, Israel) (Convicted of molesting students at Rosh Yeshiva, Netiv Meir yeshiva high school)
45. Case of Rabbi Mahluf Aminadav Krispin – Chief Rabbi of Kiryat Bialik (suspected and chared with the sexual assault of two women)
46. Case of Rabbi Baruch Lanner (New York, NY) (Convicted – child molestation. Sentancing still pending after 2 years)
47. Case of Rabbi Avraham M. Leizerowitz (AKA: Avraham Mordecai Lazerewitz) – Geres Misivta Bais Yisroel School, (Borough Park Brooklyn) – (A civil suit was filed against Rabbi Avraham Mordecai Leiverowitz of the Gerrer Mesivta High School in Borough Park Brooklyn. The charges include improperly touching a boy during a one-on-one help session in the rabbi’s office in the Borough Park secondary school. Three other older boys have also come forward making similar allegations.)
48. Case of Cantor Steven Joel Levin (AKA: Steven Levin, Steve Levin, Steven J. Levin) (Allegations were made against Cantor Steven Joel Levin of child molestation. There was also a seperate allegation of professional sexual misconduct by another party.)’
49. Case of Rabbi Stanley Z. Levitt (Philadelphia, PA; Baltimore, MD) (Several adults who have accused Rabbi Stanley Levitt of child molestation over the last forty years.)
50. Case of Rabbi Jerrold Martin Levy (Boca Raton, FL) (Convicted of two counts of soliciting sex through the Internet and two counts of child pornography. He was sentenced to six years and sex in prison. He was caught in the “Candyman” year-long sting operation by the US government.)
51. Case of Rabbi Pinchas Lew (Pottville, IA and Chapel Hill, NC) (Accused of exposing himself and touching his genitals repeatedly in front of an unrelated woman in his home)
52. Case of Rabbi David E. Lipman – Kiruv Rabbi (Prescott, AZ; Cranston, R.I.) (Pleaded guilty to one count of sexual exploitation of a minor, a Class 2 felony, and three counts of attempted sexual exploitation of a minor, Class 3 felonies. Lipman pleaded guilty to pertain to the computer images of children younger than the age of 15. ).
53. Case of Rabbi/Psychologist Mordecai Magencey (St. Louis, MO) (Lost his license to practice in the State of Missouri because of his sexual misconduct with his patients.)
54. Case of Rabbi Richard Marcovitz (Oklahoma City, OK) (Convicted of indecent or lewd acts with a child, and sexual battery)
55. Rabbi Jacob A. Max (Baltimore, MD) (Convicted on charges of a sex offense in the fourth degree and second degree)
56. Case of Rabbi Samuel Mendelowitz – Licensed Marriage Counselor (Teaneck, NJ) (Accused of gross malpractice with four female patients between 1981 and 1992. He allegedly pressured women to remove their blouses and touched them sexually, engaged in masturbation and oral sex with one patient, and disparaged their husbands and urged them to have extramarital sex with what he called “surrogate lovers” male patients in his group sessions.)
57. Case of Rabbi Yaakov Menken (Baltimore, MD) (There is a Call for Action on this case. Serious allegations have been made against Rabbi Yaakov Menken which include sexual harassment, sexual misconduct and sexual assault. Menken’s alleged modus operandi (M.O.) is of becoming a father figure to vulnerable young women and eventually allegedly sexually assaulting them.)
58. Case of Rabbi Yona Metzger (Jerusalem, Israel) (Accused of sexually misconduct with four men)
59. Case of Rabbi Juda Mintz – AKA: Yehuda Mintz (Montreal, Canada; Williamsburg, NY; Atlanta, GA; Mt. Freedom, NJ; Los Angeles, CA; Venice, CA) (Convicted – internet sting on child pornography)
60. Case of Rabbi Avrohom Mondrowitz, M.Sc., Ph.D., L.N.H.A. (Chicago, IL; Brooklyn, NY; Jerusalem, Israel) (Accused of two counts of sex abuse with boys at a special education school in New York. He is currently a college professor in Jerusalem, Israel).
61. Case of Rabbi Shalom Nagar – AKA Shlomo Nagar (Ariel, Israel) (Arrested for allegedly raping a woman who had turned to him for advice. Nagar, married with children, has served for many years as the chief rabbi of this mainly secular town, the largest Jewish settlement in Samaria)
62. Case of Cantor Howard Nevison (New York, NY) (Nevison pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of indecent assault, terroristic threats, simple assault, corruption of minors and endangering the welfare of children. Two felony counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse will be dismissed when Nevison is sentenced. A sentencing hearing has not been scheduled.)
63. Case of Rabbi Gabriel Ohayon (Boca Raton, FL) (Alleged rabbinical sexual misconduct. A former employee sued a Boca Raton Judaic studies institute, alleging that Rabbi Gabriel Ohayon groped and sexually harassed her).
64. Case of Rabbi Yehuda Aryeh Oratz (AKA: Yehoda A. Oratz) (LAKEWOOD, NJ; Marietta, GA; Brooklyn, NY) (Convicted of stalking children under the age of thirteen, and then sexually assaulting them. The Victims did NOT know the offender.Please note that there is more then one Rabbi Yehuda Oratz. This convicted offender was born on April 11, 1967).
65. Case of Rabbi Michael Ozair (Beverly Hills, CA) (There is a Call for Action on this case. Convicted, pleaded no contest to oral copulation with a 14-year-old minor. )
66. Case of Cantor Alain Oziel (New York, NY; Toronto, Canada) (Convicted on one count of indecent assault, gross indecency and attempted buggery during the period January 1, 1981, to December 31, 1982, of a teenage boy. He was sentenced to five years’ in prison. Oziel’s sentence was reduced due to his deteriorating health).
67. Case of Rabbi Haim Pardes – Former President of the Tel Aviv Rabbinical Court (Israel) (Convicted of sexually blackmailing” and performing “licentious acts” with women who sought his counsel in a synagogue. Pardes was sentanced to six months in prison and given an 18-month suspended prison sentence and fined 25,000 shekels ($12,500).
68. Case of Lou Pearlman – Mentor to the Stars (Queens, NY, Hollywood, CA) (Alleged child molester)
69. Case of Rabbi Avrohom Reichman (Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY) (Accused of child molestation)
70. Case of Shimon Rosen (Monsey, NY) (Convicted sex offender)
71. Case of Cantor Stanley Rosenfeld (Warwick, RI) (Convicted of molesting a 12-year-old boy he was tutoring.)
72. Case of Rabbi Edward Schlaeger (Shelton, CT; West Haven, CT) ( Arrested on a warrant Saturday and charged with one count of third-degree possession of child pornography.)
73. Case of Rabbi Arthur Charles Shalman (AKA Charles Friedman, Charlie Frideman, Arthur Friedman, Arthur Shalman) (Buffalo, NY) (The Rabbinical Assembly concluded that Rabbi Shalman violated several principles of rabbinic conduct. Accused of sexual misconduct toward female congregational members. )
74. Case of Rabbi Ephraim Shapiro (Baltimore, MD) (There is a Call for Action on this case. Accused of molesting several boys.)
75. Case of Cantor Robert Shapiro (Detroit, MI) (Pleaded guilty to 14 counts of indecent assault and battery on a mentally retarded person. In return, Norfolk County prosecutors dropped seven counts of rape.)
76. Case of Yisroel Shapiro (Baltimore, MD) (Accused of molesting children)
77. Case of Cantor Michael Segelstein (Las Vegas, NV) (There is a Call for Action on this case. Originally arraigned on one count each of attempted sexual assault, battery with intent to commit sexual assault and open and gross lewdness. On December 19, 2002, Michael Segelstein pled guilty to the lessor charges of open or gross lewdness, in which he received one year suspended sentence with conditions and court ordered into counseling. According to court documents, Segelstein’s probation was successfully completed. He has since been discharged. A civil suit is currently pending.)
78. Rabbi Ben Zion Sobel (New York, NY; Jerusalem, Israel) (“Rabbi Ben Zion Sobel is one of the most notorious pedophiles he has known, leaving hundreds of boys he has victimized. At one point Rabbi Shach made a rabbinic decree stating that Rabbi Ben Zion Sobel could NEVER teach again.” “Ben Zion has left survivors in both the United States and Israel.” “His modus operandi was extremely violent and barbaric.” )
79. Case of Rabbi Jack Sparks (Talleyville, DE; Newark, DE) (Arrested on charges of child endangerment of a fourteen-year-old boy.)
80. Case of Rabbi David Alan Stein (AKA: David Stein, David A. Stein) – Dean of Jewish Life, American Hebrew Academy’s former director of campus (Greensboro, NC) (charged with eight counts of having sex with a student. The alleged sex acts occurred on campus during the 2006-07 school year. The student was a 16-year-old male.)
81. Case of Robert Sternberg (AKA: Yerachiel Sherberg, Robert Stein) (Monsey, NY) (Convicted sex offender)
82. Case of Rabbi Ze’ev Sultanovitch (Jerusalem, Israel) (Accused of sexually molesting a number of adult yeshiva students at the Merkaz Harav Yeshiva)
83. Case of Rabbi Melvin Teitelbaum (Los Angeles, CA) (Charges dismissed at the request of the District Attorney’s Office, which conceded it had insufficient evidence to prosecute.Teitelbaum then a filed a $10-million damage suit in Los Angeles Superior Court. In his suit that the Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles, the Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles and the family that accused him conspired to have him arrested and charged.Later, confronted with evidence that placed Teitelbaum elsewhere at the time of the alleged incident, the siblings changed their story, a move the prosecutor said was “devastating” to their credibility.)
84. Case of Rabbi Aron Boruch Tendler (Los Angeles, CA; North Hollywood, CA) (Accused of sexually abusing teenage girls. Please Note: There is more then one Rabbi Aron Tendler. This page is about Rabbi Aron Boruch Tendler, who was born on January 15, 1955.)
85. Case of Rabbi Mordecai Tendler (AKA: Mordechai Tendler) (Monsey, NY) (Accused of innappropriate sexual behavior with women in he counseled that had gone on for years. According to Rabbi Benzion Y. Wosner, head of the Shevet Levi rabbinical court in Monsey, One should never allow their wives or daughters to go to Rabbi Mordecai Tendler at all including [for] counseling… and all his rulings are null and void.” He also stated: “The RCA had every right to oust this rabbi from their organization, and his own congregation has the same obligation.” In conclusion, he wrote, “the rabbi can no longer officiate at divorces, weddings, etc.)
86. Case of Rabbi Isadore Trachtman (Chicago, IL and Jerusalem, Israel) (Accused of cultic type practices and sexual offenses)
87. Case of Rabbi Hirsch Travis (Monsey, NY) (Charged with the sexual abuse of an unidentified 27-year-old female patient. He was also charged with posing as a Brooklyn doctor specializing in infertility problems, and illegally operating the Fertility Foundation in the Borough Park section of Brooklyn.)
88. Case of Rabbi Eliyahu Tzabari – Former chief rabbi of Ganei Tikva, Israel (Charged with sexually abusing a women with whom he counseled).
89. Case of Rabbi Ivan Wachmann – Manchester, England (Accused of sexual misconduct with women from his Manchester synagogue)
90. Case of the Rabbi Tzvi Wainhaus (AKA: The Rabbi at Hillel Torah (Chicago, IL) (arrested on October 26, 1999 and chargedwith sexual exploitation of a child. The report states that while he was tutoring an 11-year-old child, Wainhaus removed all of his clothing and exposed himself to the minor while stating that the minor “was a very sexy child”)
91. Case of Rabbi Matis Weinberg (Baltimore, MD, Santa Clara, CA and Har Nof, Israel) (There is a Call for Action on this case. Accused of cultic type practices and sexual offenses)
92. Case of Rabbi Yaakov Weiner (New York, NY and Israel) (Accused of molesting boy at Camp Mogen Avraham, New York)
93. Case of Rabbi Israel Weingarten (Monsey, NY; England; Israel; Belgium) (
94. Case of Rabbi Nachman Weisfeld (Northern, Israel) (Convicted of physically and sexually abusing children under his care in an education institution)
95. Case of Rabbi Yaakov Weiss (Loudonville, NY) (Accused and arrested on charges of having a sexual relationship with a 13-year-old boy).
96. Case of Rabbi Don Well – Principal (Brooklyn, NY) (Accused and charged with Rabbi one count of third-degree sexual abuse).
97. Case of Cantor Phillip Wittlin (Harrisburg, PA) (Convicted of molesting two girls)
98. Case of Rabbi Hershel J. Worch (Manchester, England, Mbale, Uganda; Melbourne, Australia; Pawtucket, RI; Chicago, IL; Istanbul, Turkey) (There is a Call for Action on this case. Formerly known as the Case of the Unnamed Rabbi in West Rogers Park). Accused of cult like practice which include BDSM (Bondage, Domination, Sadism, Masochism). The alleged offender originially mmets his victims on line. Allegations include using a mixture of kabbalah, hypno-eroticism and other manipulative techniques to enagage his potential victims prior to sexually assaulting them.
99. Case of Rabbi Mordechai Yomtov (Los Angeles, CA) (WARNING: Rabbi Mordechai Yomtov, is in violation of sex offender registration requirements in California for past 2 years. If you know his whereabout please notify the California authorities at: (916) 227-4974. Convicted of sexual abuse and committing lewd acts against three boys)
100. Case of Sabbatai Zevi (Accused of cultic type practices and sexual offenses.)
101. Case of Rabbi Sheldon Zimmerman (New York, NY) (Suspended from the Reform movement’s rabbinic organization because of sexual impropriety was later hired to a top position by a program that sends thousands of young Jews on free trips to Israel.. Sheldon Zimmerman was based in Cincinnati, OH, yet, also had responsibility for the Hebrew Union College’s campuses in New York, NY; Los Angeles, CA and Jerusalem, Israel .)
102. Case of the Rabbi Max Zucker (Dallas, TX) (Accused by three women of improperly touching)
103. Case of a List of Abuses at Ner Israel (Toronto, Canada) (High school student, said he was assaulted by two college students)
104. Case of The Zwi Migdal Society (Brazil, South Africa, India, China and Poland) (According to reports there were rabbis who were members of the society. From the 1860s to the beginning of the Second World War, thousands of naive, impoverished Jewish girls from eastern Europe were sold by Jewish mobsters into sexual slavery. This hugely profitable (annual revenues of $50 million in the 1890s) commerce in flesh was operated by the Zwi Migdal, a criminal association)
105. Case of The Unnamed Kidnapping Chazen /Cantor (Toronto, Canada) (Accused of kidnapping young boys from Europe and bringing them to Toronto, Canada)
106. Case of the Unnamed New York Rabbi Who Has An Unhealthy Interest In Teenage Boys
107. Case of the Unnamed Rabbi – Principal Who Inpregnated A Girl With Learning Disabilities (There is a Call for Action on this case. The Awareness Center is looking for all the information we can find regarding the Rabbi-Prinicipal who inpregnated a girl with learning disabilities at school he was principal at.)
108. Case of The Unnamed Orthodox Rabbi (Quebec, Canada) (An undercover reporter posed as an employee of an escort service. One of her two clients included a Hasidic rabbi, who masturbated in a motel room while looking at pornography on television and at the reporter in her underwear.)
109. Case of 40-year-old man residing in an ultra-orthodox yeshiva (Several yeshiva students have testified in the case and verified suspicions that a 40-year-old man who resides in the yeshiva sexually assaulted them).

It is both sad and outrageous if Mr. Silverstein believes that normative Judaism and most Jews endorse pedophilia. There are occasional sex scandals that rock Jewish communities involving rabbis and religious teachers, just as there are occasional scandals that emerge in society in general regarding sexual abuse. For example, this has been a long term issue for the Catholic Church and recently Penn State University was shaken to its core by a high profile case of pedophilia.

I’m not going to defend the Talmud, but I don’t trust Mr. Silverstein’s scholarship. Why go to all this effort when this post isn’t really about the Talmud? Besides, the status of the Talmud as a revered book is that it is an epic project compiled over centuries to elaborate and expand upon the principles and laws of the Torah, the Hebrew Bible. In other words, it is NOT more holy than the Torah itself.

Silverstein lays out a hodge-podge here. Why does he use the archaic term of “Pharisees”? This was the pre-rabbinic populist party that challenged the authority of the priests in Roman times, when the Temple still stood in Jerusalem. Also, why bring up Freud?

Is he making an anti-Semitic argument here? Does he believe that Judaism as such is evil? Does he equate all streams of modern Orthodoxy, ultra-Orthodoxy, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist, Renewal and Humanistic Judaism?

As far as I can tell, the beauty of the Talmud is that it is a treasure trove of text-based argumentation that validates the principle of debate, respectfully recording dissenting views and endorsing the notion that texts and laws are subject to rational discussion. It does not rigidly adhere to any one perspective.

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Jews have a number of history’s most important figures, people who have had a profound impact on humanity: like Patriarch Abraham, whose life and teachings are considered sacred by Jews, Christians, and Moslems; Moses, the law giver to Jews and Christians; Jesus and his disciple Paul, who founded and spread Christianity.